They've always told me that you will find love when you least expect it or when you are not looking for it; and now, speaking from experience I know this to be true. I found my love sitting on her couch, in my sweats, fresh off the plane having traveled from Portland back to Denver all day long, with my laundry (and underwear) strewn about her kitchen...

A very good friend of mine told me about her successful story of love and the first thing she said to me was how she had taken the time to be single and work on herself and although I had claimed that I was going to do this for years and how I wanted to do this, I never did. It wasn't until actually being single that I realized that I did in fact have intimacy issues, which I had already suspected, but this particular issue was the opposite of what I had originally thought it was.

Flash forward nine months and I met Kristen and something clicked. She literally took my breath away as she walked down the steps and according to witnesses, I had a 'shit-eating-grin' on my face as we introduced ourselves. We went on a couple of dates and I now recognize that I was still very hesitant, due to my intimacy issue and when she asked me to be her girlfriend, I hesitated. At this point I had been working on my intimacy issue and I wanted to make absolute sure that I was making a conscious decision and not a flippant one. I can say that to this day, saying yes to her was one of the smartest decisions I have ever made. Kristen is intelligent, kind, funny, gorgeous, motivated and hard working, patient and understanding. I really hit the jack pot with this one!

The same friend that I referenced earlier also mentioned in a conversation when discussing relationships, that people need to choose to love one another. Meaning, if you've had a long day and you're stressed out and sleep deprived and your partner says something that annoys you, instead of giving into that stress and biting your partner's head off, you stop, breath, and choose to love you partner in that moment. Be it calmly explaining to  your partner that you do not appreciate how they are acting, or halting the growing negativity completely by grabbing your partner and kissing him/her, or realizing that the comment was not a personal attack meant to annoy you.

I couldn't agree more with my dear friend about having an awareness around choosing to love your partner on a conscious level. Kristen and I choose to love each other on a daily basis. We don't fight. We talk and do not yell or push buttons. We listen to each other. We communicate. We work opposite schedules where on some days we only see each other as I leave for work in the morning and when she comes home from work later that night. Despite our limited face time we still value the time we do have and make sure to honor one another and our relationship. Along these same lines, on our worst days, when we're sad, forgetful, anxious, angry or moody, we choose to accept one another in her momentary weakness and love each other rather than belittle or berate the other.

Last week during one of our seasonal storms, Kristen was kind enough to offer me her car to drive safely to work since my car does not have 4WD. As I put my stuff inside her car and got out again to clean the car, I accidentally hit the automatic lock button and locked everything, my phone, my wallet and my lunch in the car with the ignition running. I woke Kristen back up and she gave me my car keys and told me to go to work and she'd take care of it. Not only did she deal with the headache of calling Geico to get the keys unlocked, waiting outside in the snow, she then came to my work to drop off my purse and lunch, but also took the time to take me to get my favorite tea because I had been sick.

Moments like this morning are an example of Kristen choosing to love me. Instead of becoming angry with me for locking her keys in her car with the ignition running, or getting annoyed with waking her back up early in the morning or becoming resentful that she had to drive 30 miles out of her way to bring me my lunch, she showed up with a smile and a kiss for me. This example is one of many moments that Kristen has shown her love for me. There are other sweet little moments where she remembers to bite off the top of the banana for me because I think tops of the banana are gross and they freak me out!

All this to say I couldn't be happier. Although we haven't been together for very long, our relationship has been easy and fun and exciting everyday. I still get excited when I know I'm going home to see her after work or she is coming home to see me. When I hear her voice I still get butterflies in my stomach. To me she is still the most flawless woman on this earth and her smile still takes my breath away. I love her unconditionally and she makes my life better in every way. She calms me when I'm becoming overly passionate as well as reminding me of reason when I become irrational. She accepts me during my most self-conscious moments and makes me laugh to ease the tension and make me feel better. We are good for one another-we balance each other out. I now realize that all of those cliches about love and 'happily ever after' are in fact true and are possible.

Even though my parents are still together after 32 and a half years of marriage, my sister and I have often talked about how we are not sure if people are really meant to be together for their entire lives. I am not even 32 years old, let alone being with one person for 32 years...I grew up with a healthy, loving example of two people spending their lives together and I still was not sure if this 'fairy tale ending' was going to happen to me. After meeting Kristen however, I'm quite certain that it will.

Happy Valentine's Day Love
Mia